FOREWORD 



scrub, the vines, and the more delicate wildlings that 

 belong to particular seaside soils can frequently be 

 used more advantageously in the garden than plants 

 whose needs, both below and above ground, are at 

 variance with their surroundings. For unless plants 

 can have just what they need, it is better to give up 

 growing them at all. Their roots require food and a 

 firm anchorage, and according to their individualities 

 they must have either light or shade and a helpful 

 soil to bring them to their best development. 



All seaside gardens, however, do not fall under 

 the same laws. Gardens adjoining bare strips of 

 sand have different possibilities from those near a 

 rocky coast. The gardens along the Sound and many 

 parts of Long Island produce, in the majority of in- 

 stances, the same flora as that known to the inland 

 places of the northeastern states. There is even a 

 remarkable luxuriance of growth about many of these 

 gardens barely rivaled by those more sheltered. 



It must not be thought that the gardens referred 

 to in these pages, and the plants which, among myriads 

 of others, have been selected for description, are merely 

 those that follow the sea snugly as its own boundary 

 line. They are, rather, those that exist and thrive 

 in the cities and townships lying close to the water. 

 Some of these gardens are almost touched by the sea; 

 others are farther away; but none are absolutely 

 beyond the reach of its salt, vivifying breath. The 

 desire underlying these descriptions is to give still 

 another testimony to the real joy gained through lawn 

 making, shrub and tree planting, garden building, and 



[viii] 



